Blame it on the Rain: Retailers Blame Weather for Sales
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Quarter 2 is over and earnings reports are coming out. On top of that, June retail sales data have been released. And things are looking dismal. While a host of issues from the recession to unemployment could be blamed for the sales data, analysts and retailers are latching on to the weather. MarketWatch reports on the propensity to blame the weather for June’s retail sales data:
With the nation’s unemployment rate hitting 9.5% last month, retailers — especially those in the clothing business — were also up against unusually blustery weather in the Northeast, making it hard to move swimsuits, shorts and other warm-weather merchandise, analysts said Thursday. New York, for instance, weathered 22 days of rain. …
“I’m not a big proponent of retailers blaming the weather,” said analyst Brian Sozzi of Wall Street Strategies. But for June, “it will go down as a valid argument in the record books.”
Of course, I can sympathize. It rained nearly every day of June in my neck of the woods, nestled in the Rocky Mountain West. And I certainly didn’t feel like shopping — not if it meant running around and getting soaked. But I think that the weather is just the most minor of other problems. In addition to issues of the economy, gas prices are on the rise again and the American consumer is engaging in a love affair with frugality. Buying stuff from retailers just isn’t high on the list of spending priorities. And there are no economic stimulus checks to help the cause this year. And as long as things remain this way, retailers are likely to struggle.
Interestingly, though, stocks have managed to hold on to some very small gains thus far today. The major stock indexes are just barely in the black for the day. But it is uncertain how much bad news can come out before they slip into the red.
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July 14th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
[…] of cars rose only 0.3 percent (the sale of cars can be sensitive to discounts by dealers). The unseasonably cool weather in the Northeast left spending on clothing unchanged and unsurprisingly the biggest contributor to consumer spending […]